


One Man’s Meat

by Zelos



Series: The Burial of the Guns [8]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Series, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-05-08
Packaged: 2018-03-29 13:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3897310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelos/pseuds/Zelos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Do you know how many species out there can taste, Aximili?</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Man’s Meat

**Author's Note:**

> This was once supposed to be part of a longer post-war friendship fic, but for various reasons I don't think I'll ever finish it. So here, ficlet.

<Here,> Ax held out a large, sticky cinnamon bun, wrapped in a napkin, towards Alloran. <Have you tried these before?>

Alloran stared down at the offering. <Is this...human food?>

<It is called a cinnamon bun, and is one of humanity's greatest inventions,> Ax told him. <I got it from the Cinnabon at the trading post. In this, and this alone, I believe humans are the pinnacle of the galaxy. The taste they develop in their foods is beyond incredible. A pity Andalites, in our natural form, cannot taste.>

Alloran stared at the food for a long, slow moment, long enough until Ax became uncomfortable. <Al...Alloran? Have I offended you?>

<Andalites cannot taste,> Alloran interrupted, voice hollow. <We are but grazers. And yet...I have tasted. I have tasted from dozens of planets. I have tasted barren Yeerk grass and rich verdant greens, leaves and ferns and flora from far-flung corners of the galaxy.

<And...I have tasted flesh. Yeerk, Irrfit, human, Taxxon—by accident—and Hork-Bajir. Gedds. Do you know how many species out there can taste, Aximili? Perhaps none so refined as humans, but taste all the same. Do you know what flesh tastes like? Skirt-Na? Shakroon? And...yes...Andalite?>

Ax flinched.

Alloran made a bitter, ruined smile. A pity, Ax thought, that Andalites could not cry.

<No, Aximili,> Alloran said, voice very soft, <I think...I will never want to taste again.>


End file.
